Public invited to open house April 20 to see old Lenawee County Courthouse renovations
ADRIAN — The public is invited to an open house to see the newly renovated old Lenawee County Courthouse next week.
The open house will be from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 20, according to a news release from the county administrator’s office. The courthouse is at 301 N. Main St.
There will be a video that takes visitors through the renovation process, and representatives from the various trades that worked on the project have been invited to provide information as people tour.
There will also be county representatives available to talk with people about their offices and county operations. County administrator Martin Marshall suggests people consider bringing their families to visit.
After almost two years of work starting and stopping and starting again and dealing with the backlogs in receiving orders of building materials due to the pandemic, the renovations were mostly complete in mid-December and Lenawee County employees were back in their old offices.
Marshall and other county employees said the renovations allow the historic building to continue to be a landmark and be enjoyed by residents for years to come.
Marshall had wanted to see the renovations take place for 15 years, but the resources and the people did not come together until 2020. The planning began in 2018 when the county was working on renovations at the Sheriff’s Office building.
“The actual work began in February of 2020, but then, of course with COVID hitting, we were shut down,” Marshall said. “We moved out of the old courthouse into the annex the first week of February and then the project really took off in June 2020.”
As part of the renovations, a number of items were ripped out.
For example, the enclosed stairways were opened up. The rotunda in the middle of the building was opened up so that one can see from the second floor down to the main floor.
“One of the new features that I think people are going to appreciate is the stained glass dome that was installed. There was always a glass dome, but it was frosted glass, and with air conditioning put into the attic, a lot of the heat that would have come down through there had been shut off. So now we have a stained glass dome with artificial light behind it to light it up and make it look good all day long,” Marshall said.
In the old courtroom, which is now the county commission chambers, the ceiling was opened up. The workers went back up to what they thought was the original ceiling but came to find out there was a ceiling yet above that. They restored the ceiling below that.
The building was cleaned and power washed. The masonry was repaired. Some of the sandstone had defects in it. The defects were chiseled away and then patched with a compound that is harder than sandstone but looks like the original sandstone. The dome and wood trim on the exterior of the building were repainted.
People might notice a couple of subtle differences from how the courthouse looked before the renovations: the dome and the floral accents found in the plaster within the courthouse are painted white.
“I think that the renovated building looks great and I have heard nothing but positive comments about the project,” Marshall said in an email. “This is certainly a project that I have had on my mind for a number of years and I am very happy that we were able to make it happen.”
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Open house to show old Lenawee County Courthouse renovations
